Spirit First...a sanctuary for peace

Welcome to Spirit First...a holy, gentle, quiet place, a place for contemplation and acceptance, a place for peace and love.
Our work here is to explore our meditations, deepen our mindfulness, strengthen our principles and practices, and become more of our authentic selves. May we, as we put Spirit First, open up more deeply to the silence within and discover the truth of who we are.

Monday, October 03, 2016

Deadline: January 31, 2017(midnight)
First Prize: $200
Second Prize: $150
Third Prize: $100

Complete Guidelines:

Spirit First is pleased to announce its 8th Annual Meditation Poetry Contest.
Poetry submissions may be of any length and any style but must have a theme of Meditation or Mindfulness. Poems may reflect any discipline, any faith, or
none. Poems must be previously unpublished. Poems not on the themes of meditation, mindfulness, stillness, or sacred silence will be disqualified
in the first round.

Enter up to three submissions. Poems beyond three submissions will not
be considered.

Please
submit your poems by email unless you do not have access to the Internet. Poems
will be accepted by U.S. Postal Service for those who do not have access to
sending through the Internet. All others are requested to be emailed. Poems
sent by U.S. Postal Service will not be returned. Poems must be received by January 31, 2017.

Please
submit your poems all in one file or inside the
body of an email (rather than three poems in three separate files). Be
sure to include the author's name, address, telephone number, and email
address. There is no cost to enter this contest. Submissions must be received
no later than January 31, 2017. Please note: We are sorry to say we are unable to provide personal
evaluations/reviews of individual poems.

Winners will be announced on or before June 30, 2017, on the
Spirit
First website at www.spiritfirst.org. Winning
poems will be published on the Spirit First website, the Spirit
First Facebook page, the Spirit First blog, and in a Spirit
First newsletter (authors retain full rights to their poems).

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Joe Cottonwood has worked
as a carpenter, plumber, and electrician for most of his life. He is the author
of nine published novels, a book of poetry, and a memoir. His novels for adults includeFamous Potatoes(1978) andClear Heart(2009).His novels for children and young
adults includeQuake!(1995)andThe
San Puerco Trilogy(1990-1996).
Joe Cottonwood's 2013memoir,99
Jobs: Blood, Sweat, and Houses, based on his experiences as a contractor,carpenter,plumber, and electrician, is
available electronically and in print—readers and reviewers have praised its
humor and authenticity. Joe lives in La Honda,
California, where he built a house and raised a family. More about Joe at http://www.joecottonwood.com/.

I am Building a Brace

by Joe Cottonwood

I’m a carpenter. There’s a mindfulness of craft—of
any manual labor, actually—if you open yourself to it.

Second-Place Winner Jacqueline Jules is the
author of the poetry chapbooks Field Trip to the Museum(Finishing
Line Press) and Stronger Than Cleopatra(ELJ
publications). Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications
including Inkwell, Quaker Life, St. Anthony Messenger,
Christian Science Monitor, Soundings Review,The Innisfree Poetry
Journal, Potomac Review, Imitation Fruit, Connecticut River
Review, and Pirene's Fountain. Jacqueline Jules is
also the author of 30 books for young readers including the Zapato
Power series, Sarah Laughs, and Never Say a
Mean Word Again. Visit her online at www.jacquelinejules.com. Jacqueline is a previous winnerin
our Spirit First annual poetry contest, winning first place in 2014 for her
poem "To Be a Gold Droplet Floating."

Arlene Gay Levine,
author of 39 Ways to Open Your
Heart: An Illuminated Meditation (Conari Press) and Movie Life (Finishing Line Press),
has had poetry and prose appear in many venues, including in The New York Times, in an off-Broadway
show, and on radio. Her poetry is frequently anthologized. She lives with her
husband in New York City where she tends a garden of words, roses, and herbs.
Learn more at http://www.arlenegaylevine.com/.

Jon Wesick is the author of the collection Words of Power, Dances of Freedom; he hosts San Diego’s Gelato
Poetry Series; and he is an editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual. Jon has published over 300 poems in
journals such as the Atlanta Review, Pearl, and Slipstream. He has published almost 100
short stories, and in 2015, “Visitor” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His
poem “Bread and Circuses” won second place in the 2007 African American Writers
and Artists contest. Jon Wesick has a Ph.D. in physics and is a longtime
student of Buddhism and the martial arts.

Our Poetry Contest 2016 has added a Special Category Award—Haiku, and the winning entry is Awareness ~ Zen Haiku by E.B. Littlehill.E.B. Littlehill is a former journalist and marketing communications writer.
After being downsized from her corporate communications job during the Great
Recession (she is still trying to figure out what was so great about it), she
started a new career as a freelance event photographer. In 2014, she began a
Tumblr blog of poetry and photographs called Smoke Signals from the
Hill. She recently reached 800 followers. All but a handful are complete
strangers. Her poem, “Instagram Photos” was chosen for inclusion in the Montclair
Write Group Sampler 2016.Her first book of poetry, See the Dragons ~
A Collection of Zen Haiku, is currently being considered for chapbook
publication. Read more at http://smokesignalsfromthehill.tumblr.com/. The Spirit First2016 Meditation Poetry
Contest was the first poetry contest she ever entered.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Deadline: February 29, 2016
First Prize: $200
Second Prize: $150
Third Prize: $100

Complete Guidelines:

Spirit First is pleased to announce its Seventh Annual Meditation Poetry
Contest. Poetry submissions may be of any length and any style but must have a
theme of Meditation or Mindfulness. Poems may reflect any
discipline, any faith, or none. Poems must be previously unpublished.

Enter up to three submissions. Poems beyond three submissions will not
be considered.

Please
submit your poems by email unless you do not have access to the Internet. Poems
will be accepted by U.S. Postal Service for those who do not have Internet
access. All others are requested to be emailed. Poems sent by U.S. Postal
Service will not be returned. Poems must
be received by February 29, 2016.

Please
submit your poems all in one file or inside the body of an email (rather than
three poems in three separate files). Be sure to include the author's name,
address, telephone number, and email address. There is no cost to enter this
contest. Submissions must be received no later than February 29, 2016. Please note: We are sorry to say we are
unable to provide personal evaluations/reviews of individual poems.

Winners will be announced on or before June 30, 2016, on the
Spirit
First website at www.spiritfirst.org. Winning
poems will be published on the Spirit First website, the Spirit
First Facebook page, the Spirit First blog, and in a Spirit
First newsletter (authors retain full rights to their poems).

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Ginna Wilkerson has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from University of Aberdeen. Her
first poetry collection, Odd Remains, was
released in 2013. Currently Ginna is making a transition from poetry to prose,
working on mixed media art, and looking forward to residencies in Canada and
Finland in 2015. Her work can be seen on her website at www.ginnawilkerson.weebly.com.

David Allen
Sullivan’s first book, Strong-Armed
Angels, was published by Hummingbird Press, and three of its poems
were read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Every Seed of
the Pomegranate, a multi-voiced manuscript about the war in Iraq, was
published by Tebot Bach. A book of translation from the Arabic of Iraqi Adnan
Al-Sayegh, Bombs Have Not Breakfasted Yet was published in
2013, and Black Ice, about his father’s dementia and death, is
forthcoming from Turning Point. He teaches at Cabrillo College, where he edits
the Porter Gulch Review with his students, and lives in Santa Cruz with his
love, the historian Cherie Barkey, and their two children, Jules and Mina
Barivan. He was awarded a Fulbright, and taught in China for one year (yesdasullivan.tumblr.com). His poems and books can be found
at http://davidallensullivan.weebly.com/index.html.

Jeanie Greensfelder, a psychologist and poet, is author
of Biting the Apple, Penciled In, 2012, and Marriage and
Other Leaps of Faith, Penciled In, 2015. She’s had a poem published on
Writer’s Almanac and in American Life in Poetry. Her poems are in forthcoming
anthologies: Pushing the Envelope: Epistolary Poems, Paris, and 30
Years of the San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival; in journals: Askew,
Miramar, Orbis, Echoes, Grand, Kaleidoscope, Porter Gulch Review, Poetic
Medicine Journal, Riptide, Falling Star, and If&When. She
lives in San Luis Obispo, California. Her poems can be read at jeaniegreensfelder.com.

Check out the Spirit First Website

We have to earn silence, then, to work for it: to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion.~ Pico Iyer, "The Eloquent Sounds of Silence"

Spirit First

Spirit First is an inclusive home and retreat for those who seek meditation and contemplation regardless of chosen discipline or faith. If you are Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, or Christian...if you are Sufi, Native American, Taoist, something else or nothing else, you are welcome to this place of quiet and study. At Spirit First we practice going within, and we support each other in our efforts to do so.

Our Mission

Spirit First promotes the practice of meditation and the development of spiritual awareness and mindfulness. We seek to serve by providing education, tools, and networking that support those on a spiritual path. Spirit First encourages holistic attitudes, healthful living, gentleness with the earth, and compassion with the world.

Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end. ~ Krishnamurti